I’m the type of person who makes lists, journals, and creates a vision board each year. However, when New Year’s Eve rolls around I often find myself in a frenzy of creating new goals, resolutions, and wanting to reset my life after the clocks strikes 12 in the new year.

It’s as if there is a huge life clock hanging over my head ticking away and the reset button is hit every Jan. 1.

Recently, though, I realized that the New Year only makes a difference with your personal goals if you let it.

Reaching goals isn’t linear

Goals should be an ongoing process of making adjustments and refining your processes so that you can ultimately reach what you desire for yourself.

Reaching your goals is never a linear process — there are many starts and stops to the process. In fact, a large percentage of people who set goals or New Year’s resolutions end up quitting the goals that they set at that time.

According to statisticbrain.com the following are the top 10 resolutions made in 2015:

• Lose weight
• Get more organized
• Spend less, save more
• Enjoy life
• Staying healthy
• Learning something new
• Quit smoking
• Help others
• Fall in love
• Spend more time with family and friends

It’s my belief that it’s better to be in an ongoing process of making goals, achieving them, and then setting new goals throughout the year. Some people feel that it’s better to end the old year with a burst of energy, new tasks, and ideas. Basically, you end the year the way that you would like to begin it — on an up note.

The other issue is how on earth do you achieve these goals? There is a ton of advice centered around the idea of goal achievement and which process you should follow. I think that people get overwhelmed by their goals and aren’t sure where to start, and where to end.

Also, people can be a bit unrealistic about the amount of time it will take to achieve their goals. If someone is in debt they forget that it usually takes years to get into debt so it may take some time to get out of debt.

People who have set the goal to lose weight have to unlearn eating habits, getting used to exercising, and dealing with any issues that may or may not have contributed to the weight gain.

A method to achieving goals

Many people swear by the S.M.A.R.T. way of achieving their goals:

S: Specific. Be specific about what you would like to achieve.

M: Measurable. Set benchmarks to achieve your goals that you can measure.

A: Achievable. Set goals that you can actually achieve. Instead of trying to lose 15 pounds in a month, set the goal to lose 4 pounds a month. Set yourself up to succeed.

R: Results/Relevant/or Realistic. You get to decide which one of these would work best for your situation. Results are nice because you measure success by the results you achieve. Relevant would be goals that are actually relevant to your situation. Finally, be realistic about the goals that you set for yourself. Dream big…but, be honest with yourself as you set your goals.

T:Time. Create a time frame to achieve the goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Start small. Regardless of whether you start your goals on New Year’s Eve or at any other time of year, set yourself up for success. Good luck!

This post was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

Does a New Year Affect Your Goals? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

I didn’t have a budget and I had no clue how much money was going into or coming out of my account each month.

I had just discovered personal finance blogs, which lead me to start tracking my spending. All of a sudden I was able to sleep better at night knowing that I had enough money in my account to pay my bills, at least the minimums. I still didn’t have a budget, but I was on my way to learning more about my financial situation.

I made the decision that come January 1, 2014 I was going to start living by a monthly budget. I was confident that I could set up a successful budget because I had been tracking my spending for a couple of months by that point.

Some critics might say that I should have started budgeting right then and there instead of waiting for the New Year, but I disagree. By preparing for my new goals for the new year ahead of time I was able to get a head-start on my progress.

If you’re the same way and you have big plans for next year, don’t just wait around until then to get started. You can start preparing for the new year (and new goals) now. Here’s how.

Reflect on the Past

Take time to think back on the past year. Did you accomplish what you set forth to accomplish in 2015? If not, why? Should you consider setting the same goal for the new year that you had for this year?

Thinking back on past successes (and failures) can teach you a lot about yourself and will help you set more attainable goals for the future.

Find Direction

Along that same line, you need to spend some time thinking about what you want to accomplish in the new year. Are your goals helping you to accomplish the big picture of what you want your life to look like? If not, perhaps you need to change directions a bit.

Last year I decided to set fewer goals than I did the year before and for 2016 I anticipate setting even fewer still. I’ve found that the more I narrow my focus on the direction I want to go, the further I get, even if I don’t meet all of my goals.

Set Your Goals and Have a Plan

Instead of just setting vague goals for the new year, like “I want to lose weight” you need to set more concrete and measurable goals, like “I want to lose X lbs by the end of the year.” Once you’ve decided on your goals for the new year, formulate a plan to help you get off on the right foot. Create a meal plan to help ensure you eat healthily following the holidays, or start creating a budget so you can kick off your financial goals with ease.

No matter what your goals are for the New Year, and no matter how this year turned out for your 2015 goals, everyone gets to start over with a blank slate for the new year.

Are you preparing for the new year already?

How You Can Start Preparing for the New Year Now is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

If you can believe it, 2015 is almost 50% over already! Yowza!! When did that happen?

If you are anything like me, you set some lofty goals for the year: for your life, your finances, and everything else.

My goals list for 2015 included things like:

• Pay off $5,000 of debt (principal).
• Reach $1,500 of emergency fund savings.
• Attend FinCon15 and pay in cash.
• Paint my home office.
• Declutter some books.
• Limit my spending on clothes.
• Quit my full-time job by the end of the year.

Even with some pretty exciting, fun, and scary goals on that list, I still had a lot of other things in mind that I also wanted to accomplish in 2015.

Some of them are little things which is why they didn’t make it on the list, and others are things like have more time to spend with my family, friends, and pets, which is part of the motivation behind me accomplishing the goals on my 2015 list.

Personally, I think goals are great to have. They keep you motivated and focused on what matters, at least as long as you go about setting them correctly.

Sometimes goals have to be changed before they are met. For instance, last year I had to reduce one of my goals because there was NO WAY I was going to make it, which made it depressing instead of motivating. This year I had to scratch one off the list. (If you can’t guess which one, you must be living under a rock, haha.) After only about 3 months I had already completely failed at my goal of limiting my clothes spending for the year to a certain threshold. But ever since I scratched it off the list, I’ve actually done better at limiting my spending on fashion.

Anyway, the point of this post isn’t to argue about if you should set goals or not (which you totally should in my opinion) but instead to point out that we are nearly 50% through the year. This means you should be nearly 50% through your goals.

If you are way too far ahead or behind of the 50% mark, now is the time to re-asses not only your goals by why you set them in the first place.

When you asses your goals and progress and you find you are way off, here’s what you should do:

Too Far Ahead

If you happen to be one of the lucky people who are 75-80% or more done with your yearly goals, you should take this opportunity to make them bigger.

For instance, this year I’m going to crush my debt payoff goal. Since I already know this, I’m going to re-set my goal to a higher amount so I’ll still be challenge and have to stretch to reach my new goal by the end of the year. This will keep me motivated and working hard.

Too Far Behind

Womp womp womp! Sometimes we fall too far behind in our goals. That’s ok, it happens. Instead of wallowing and feeling bad about it, use this opportunity to figure out why you are behind.

If the only reason you are behind is because of an un-foreseen circumstance or because you set your goal too high, simply adjust it down to just outside of reach and keep going!

But if you find that you are no longer motivated to reach your goal because you no longer care about it, you should abandon it now. There’s no sense in striving for something you don’t care about. Instead you should set a new goal in it’s place to reflect your new direction.

No matter where you are at when you asses your 2015 progress vs. your 2015 goals, there’s still time to rectify the situation and make great progress the rest of the year.

Where are you at with your 2015 goals?

Are You 50% Done With Your 2015 Goals? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Initially, our goal amped us up. We imagined the huge benefit that having an $80,000 down payment would eventually provide. We got to work budgeting, doing the math, and analyzing the numbers. Then, we started to actually transfer money into the down payment account as our money trickled in.

There was something wrong, though. The savings were anticlimactic. In the grand scheme of $80,000, putting away $100 here and $300 there seemed pretty pathetic.

After saving for two months for $2,000, we realized that we’d only reached 1/40th of the goal, and gave up.

Our big, hairy, audacious goal was a bust, and left us feeling like failures.

What Went Wrong?

We had this great goal. It met the “SMART” criteria – it was specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

We certainly could have saved up $80,000 over the course of three years. At $26,000 per year, it would have only been $13,000 each, which was attainable with our incomes and expenses at the time.

What went wrong was simply that the goal was too removed from what we were already doing.

We weren’t actually saving any money at the time toward a down payment. There were no small steps or changes in our habits to build us up. We wanted to go from saving nothing to saving over $1,000 per month each, every single month.

Small Wins = Big Gains

Instead of being a huge motivator, our big, hairy, audacious goal ended up being discouraging. We made very little progress over the few months after we set the goal, despite our best intentions. If we had set a goal like saving $300 per month each and then working our way up from there, we would have seen actual progress. That would have been motivating for us. We would have been able to move from $300 per month up to $500, then upward from there.

Our brains need to see small successes to remain motivated.

This is why Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method of debt repayment actually works, whereas it’s rival, the method of paying off the highest interest debt first isn’t as successful.

If you are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method, it looks like this:

• List all of your debts, from largest to smallest by amount owed
• Continue paying the minimum payment on all debts, and funnel all extra debt-repayment funds toward the smallest debt
• When the smallest debt is paid off, funnel all extra funds toward the second smallest debt, and so on.

This is quite controversial in the world of personal finance (lol, I know, right?). Many will argue that the debt that is repaid first should be the one with the highest interest rate, which makes sense from a savings point of view.

On paper, this is far better advice, but it doesn’t work. People don’t stick to it. Humans need the affirmation of small wins. It gives us the sense that we are making progress and gives us the confidence we need to continue. Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method takes care of the psychological need to have those small wins.

Is it smarter financially to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate? Sure! But in reality, the financially smarter route is the one that you’ll actually take.

When the first debt is paid off – maybe it’s a $250 credit card – it provides a sense of accomplishment. It’s a small win that makes you believe you can do what you set out to do.

Use Psychology to Set Goals You’ll Actually Reach

Knowing how our brains need small wins to stay motivated, actually make progress by avoiding logical thinking (our brains are NOT logical) and set goals that are almost easy to attain, especially when you are starting from scratch.

– Instead of setting a goal to pay off $40,000 worth of debt in one year, focus on getting to the first $5,000 of debt payoff. Once you reach $5,000 per month, focus on the next $7,000.

– Instead of setting your sights on losing 50 pounds, focus on losing just one. Once you lose one pound, increase your goal to two more.

– Instead of trying to figure out how to build a business that will bring in $5,000 per month, work on earning $500 per month.

With these goals, every time that you transfer $100 onto a credit card, go for a jog, or earn $75, you are making huge progress toward your goal. Reaching 25% of your goal feels far better than reaching 1% of your goal.

Sure, we probably could make progress faster than this – but we don’t. Instead of setting these goals and actually reaching them, we set these goals, realize we can’t run before we learn to walk, and give up completely.

In our situation, going from $0 to $5,000 saved would have been motivating. After we gave up, we spent a couple of months just letting the money accumulate and then set another goal of saving just $5,000. This was far more effective.

So it’s easy. Scale it back. Sure, keep your huge goal, write it down somewhere, and don’t forget about it. But to actually reach it, set yourself up for small wins. And don’t forget to change your environment.

How to Fail at Your Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (And How to Set A Goal That You’ll Reach) is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Five years ago, I was overspending by hundreds of dollars a month on things that I neither really wanted nor needed. Whether it was a tank top on sale for $5, a or cinnamon bun in the food court for $7, nothing was off limits.

I worked in a mall, so I was surrounded every day by shopping, consumerism, and “blowout sales”.

This resulted in a hamster wheel of living paycheque to paycheque. The only thing preventing me from sinking deep into credit card debt was that my credit limit was $800.

I moved in 2010, resulting in a complete overhaul of my life. My environment had completely changed. Instead of working in a mall, I worked on a farm. Instead of spending thousands of dollars a year on junk, my money accumulated and I started the first long term savings account I’d ever had.

When I moved, my time was spent with people who were ambitious and inspired, and I drank the poison.

I moved with no plan to enter into a degree program; I was going to get my diploma and be done with it. My friends’ drive influenced me to enter into a degree program. I graduated two years later, already working in my chosen field.

A change in my environment – what I did, where I was, and who I spent time with – completely changed my life.

Study after study demonstrates your environment’s affect on your progress in health, business, and various other pain points.

Knowing this, we can design our lives so our environment is such that it would be difficult to fail at goals.

We’ve heard the old adage “out of sight out of mind”, and know how true it is for dieters. People who want to try to make a dietary change for the better aren’t going to have much success if their favorite dessert is sitting on the counter.

Your environment has such a huge impact, even, that according to a study done by Brown University, if a teen has three or more friends who smoke, their likelihood of picking up the nasty habit increases by 2,400%.

Who you surround yourself with and what you see and do on a daily basis can make or break your success in meeting a goal or making a lifestyle change.

How to Meet Any Financial Goal You Set For Yourself

If you spent an hour a day with Jillian Michaels, chances are you’d have a higher level of weight loss success than spending an hour a day with a self indulgent friend who is 50 pounds overweight.

If you go to the grocery store and buy chips, it’s going to be awfully hard not to eat them when you take them home.

Consider your finances. If you are in debt, how can you change your environment to ensure that you get out of it?

You could start a blog to track your progress and connect with like-minded people. If you have a weakness for spending money on consumer goods, unsubscribe from promotional emails, flyers and catalogues. Take a different route home from work if you drive by your favorite store.

If you want to make more money, surround yourself with people who make more than you do. Subscribe to a blog about income generation, such as smartpassiveincome.com. Ensure that the posts are delivered right to your inbox each morning. You’ll be compelled to read them.

If your goal is to eat out less, ensure that you have your refrigerator stocked with food that you like, and that you have some easy-to-prepare recipes on hand. Don’t walk by any restaurants at lunch.

Your environment has a huge impact on your success. Watch out for these three things when trying to reach a goal:

– Who you spend time with
– Where you spend your time
– What triggers you expose yourself to

Trying to work around these triggers will only make your transition much more difficult, so if you do reach the goal, it will be at the expense of your will power.

Design your environment in such a way that will help, as opposed to hinder your progress.

How to Meet Any Financial Goal You Set For Yourself is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

I poured over books as a child, bringing them grocery shopping with my mom, to school, and to every corner of the house. I read when I was walking, when I was supposed to be learning in school, and with a flashlight under the covers in bed.

I’d bring a book with me when we went anywhere, and, while driving home in the darkness of the suburban night, would gobble up the words on the pages as we passed under a streetlight or even the dim, flickering glow of a store sign.

Words were, and still are, my passion.

I believe that words are one of the most powerful forms of currency. We exchange them, sometimes meaninglessly but more often with purchase. What humans say can impact individuals and entire nations. Our words can build somebody up or take them down. Words can be feared, enjoyed, and are often celebrated.

This isn’t about my love of words, however.

This is about the way in which we talk ourselves out of our dreams.

Perhaps inspired by my love of books or my fascination with literature and written communication, my love of reading translated into a love of writing. When I was eight, I wrote a children’s book called Pigs in Peanut Butter, which rhymed completely and was a story about the fair treatment of animals (another passion). I handed it in to my Grade 5 teacher who spoke to my parents about taking the story to a publisher. This was short lived, as my little family moved away.

Middle school made writing dorky, so instead of journaling my frustrations with my clique, my parents or my crushes, I gossiped about them with my friends. Any writing that I did do, I did in secret. I had dozens of short stories saved on my mom’s desktop computer, and dozens more in my head, but I hid my affinity for writing to fit in.

Still, while waiting in a lineup or during “quiet time” at school, I would make up stories in my head and itch to write them down.

As I got older, I still wanted to become an author, but saw a pattern in the way the world viewed creatives. I was urged to go to school, to get a degree in something useful, something that would make me employable, and leave my writing as a hobby.

I stretched myself to leave that small part of who I was aside, to adapt to the demands of society and it’s norms.

Whereas I was an imaginative, creative, and bookish child, I pushed myself to become an analytical, practical, and detail oriented adult; these are skills I was told you needed to excel in a corporate environment. I do have a great deal of skills that come in handy in business, and enjoy flexing them, but I’m most comfortable communicating in some form or another.

Children are impressionable and gullible, but adults are self-sabotaging.

I had a conversation recently with a friend who I’ve known for my entire life: “I remember when you wanted to be an author when you grew up! What happened to that?”

The conversation pushed me to consider what actually did happen to that dream.

I didn’t fall out of love with writing.

I didn’t somehow lose my ability to write.

It wasn’t just a silly childhood notion, like my dream of becoming a mermaid.

What actually happened to my dream of becoming an author was that I talked myself out of it.

Now that I am long removed from the pressures of fitting in and choosing my career path and the potential failure to launch had I chosen wrong, the only thing that is holding me back from doing what I want is my mind.

I’ve convinced myself that I no longer have an interest in writing. I’ve convinced myself that I grew out of my creativity when I grew out of my Sweet Valley High books, and that authoring anything is no way to make a decent living. I’ve told myself that I am too busy with my day job and my side businesses to write anything worthwhile, anyway.

These are all of the excuses that I’ve created in my head, none of which are true or valid, that are preventing me from being something that I’ve always wanted to be:

A writer.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m going to start writing a book. Not now and perhaps not ever. The world has changed and I’ve adapted to it; there are plenty of ways to be creative besides authoring a novel. Bloggers can be writers too, and freelancers and people who just write for fun.

We our own worst enemy when it comes to reaching goals or realizing dreams or even just being the type of person who sits down and creates something or does something they love every day.

We talk ourselves out of things which, in our heart of hearts, we would still love to be able to do or at least further explore. We are scared or discouraged or out of practice, and without knowing it, we talk ourselves out of these things that were once important to us.

The craziest thing is that we even believe the nonsense our fear and discouragement is feeding us about not wanting to reach the goal anymore.

So think about it – what dreams have you squashed or hobbies have you given up because you feared failing at them? What excuses have you made to feed your discouragement?

What have you talked yourself out of lately?

What Have You Talked Yourself Out of Lately? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Not all of our goals differ; in the long-term, we are generally on the same page. We both want to sell or rent out our home to move to a smaller community locally, where we plan to buy a chunk of land so we can enter the vacation rental business. We both have a goal to retire early, to have children, and to be able to go on at least one trip per year together. These are common goals which will guide the paths of our life together.

However, we are different people. We have different brains, personalities, and dreams. I’ve never believed that once you are married, you have to give up your individual dreams if your spouse is not on the same page, and we refuse to live like that.

J’s priority is to be able to buy a decent truck when his is no longer functional, and I am working hard toward saving $12,000 for travel within the next 7 months. J is not interested in travelling extensively, but I still plan to see as much of the world as possible.

Differing dreams and goals which have a huge impact on finances may seem like a big deal in a marriage, but for us it has been completely manageable. In fact, even though we’ve only been married for a month, we’ve been together for seven years, and we have learned to make it work. Both of us are happier for it.

We Designate Certain Amounts to Each Goal

We have one advantage over many recently married couples, and that’s that we are what many would consider “high earners” for our ages. I just transferred to a role that gave me a decent raise (because i’m temporary) and J chose a trade as a career path. He has 10 years of experience on his shoulders and works for a commercial construction company, which pays quite well.

As a result, we have a chunk of change to put aside each month (especially now that we aren’t paying for the wedding!) and we don’t take saving money lightly.

After the bills are paid, we have a large disposable income, so we’re able to designate a large portion of income to our savings for each goal. When we earned less, we still made goals and saved for them, but we made smaller, more realistic goals that matched our situation at the time.

In the interest of privacy, I won’t disclose exact numbers, but let’s just say our monthly savings is broken down like this:

• 20% RRSP
• 20% TFSA
• 20% investments
• 20% J’s goal
• 20% my goal

(This isn’t the actual breakdown, but for illustration purposes, it will work).

We do put money away each month to go toward savings for common financial goals, such as future children.

Any Money Earned On Top Of Regular Income Is Fair Game

I earn a lot of side income from my various businesses and “hustles”. I’m easily bored and have narrowed my side work down to only that which I love to do, so I thoroughly enjoy all of my money-making endeavours enough to continue with them consistently.

On the other hand, J has a physically demanding day job and not as much passion for entrepreneurship, so he doesn’t make any extra money on the side. Because I work 30-40 hours more than he does every week to make the extra money, most of the extra money that I make goes toward my goals.

To be clear, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but rather something that has been established over the course of our relationship and J’s general distaste for working more than he has to.

It works out great for us as a couple, because often the savings left over from my designated portion of the disposable income gets contributed to his goal, or a joint goal.

If J decided that he really, really wanted heated seats in his future new truck, and decided to pick up a weekend job to pay for it, then he’d be able to use his earnings for the luxurious goodness of heated seats.

We Both Do Our Best to Get What We Can For Cheaper/Free

Instead of just paying cash for whatever it is that we want, we both do our best to keep our goal savings in the bank and get whatever it is that we wanted for less, or even free.

For instance, I have two credit cards that give me travel rewards points to put toward free flights and accommodation on my trips. As it stands right now, I have the equivalent of a free flight on my American Express Gold Rewards Card, enough Airmiles for another free international flight (or 3-4 domestic/US trips) and yet another free domestic/US flight with a companion fare from my Westjet RBC World Elite Mastercard.

Instead of being foolish and going to a dealership to buy a brand new truck, J will try to find a truck that has been used but is in good condition, either through an owner sale or a dealership (alternatively, at an auction, but that’s a whole other post).

Sometimes, there are things that one of us wants to buy that we can’t swing a bargain for, but it’s an effort that we both have made for our smaller purchases and that I will be making for my travel expenses.

 We Are Supportive and Understanding

I’ve touched on this before, but we are different people, and understand that we therefore have different ideas of what we consider “fun”. J would rather carve his eyes out with a spoon than spend any time in a city like Hong Kong, whereas I would jump at the opportunity (and try to make my own opportunities) to visit that city.

Just because he doesn’t want to travel as much as I do, doesn’t mean I would be willing to give up that dream, nor would he expect that of me (and if he did, I wouldn’t have married him).

I expect my car to last for years to come, and it’s already paid for; I will get little benefit of J having a truck, but I understand that it’s important to him to have a truck, and he values toys more than he does travel, so I am supportive of his future purchase of one.

It helps that we are both financially stable and responsible, and neither of us is looking to go out and buy something unreasonable. Having differing financial goals can be difficult on a couple but I think we balance it well.

How We Handle Conflicting Financial Goals is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

At the beginning of July, I switched work sites at my old job so I was within a 15 minute walk from my house. That was short-lived, though, because two weeks later I wrapped up two and a half years there to switch jobs after my wedding.

I got married, started my new and improved job, and spent some much needed down time with my (huge, loud) family and new husband.

August will be a much quieter month, and already we have been getting caught up on some projects that we let fall to the wayside over the past few months of wedding planning.

Despite the madness, I still did fairly well on my 2014 goals.

Lose 15 Lbs

After the wedding I have been indulging myself a bit more but I still think that I’m on track to reach my goal of losing 15 pounds by the end of the year. I am down roughly 10 since the beginning, so that’s good news. I just have to refocus myself and stay away from the ice cream, which is a challenge most of the time let alone in the summer.

$20,000 Online Income

July was my best month so far in 2014, ringing in at $2,644.94 total online earnings.

The increase is mainly due to a huge order for an e-commerce store I recently opened. This total does not take into account any expenses incurred in order to make the money. I can imagine that I would have made a lot more had I been around to put some more time and attention into it.

In January, I made just over $1,600; in February, I made $1627; in March, I made $1375.35; in April I made $1678.33; in May, I made $1533.82; in June I made $1978.42.

Overall in 2014, my extra online income has totalled: $12,437.86.

If I average out my earnings over the past seven months, I am on track to surpass my goal of $20K online by $1,320. Not bad!

1 Hour/Day Unplugged

I spent far more than an hour a day unplugged over the month of July. In fact, I’d say that I spent very little time on the internet or using technology in general. I was too busy wedding planning and coordinating and then, spending time with my new husband.

This was far too easy in July.

Plus, I wasn’t focused enough to type a coherent sentence, so I didn’t spend much time writing on my blogs.

Get a Promotion

I didn’t get a promotion at my old job because there was no new opportunities coming down the pipe. I did, however, switch jobs and promote myself. I am now earning substantially more doing a far more rewarding job for an organization that is a far better fit for me.

Overall, July was a great month. Now that I don’t have a wedding to plan, and I have a little bit more time and free money  (at least in August, before we go on our month long honeymoon) to focus on saving and building the online empire, I have thought of another goal to work toward for the remainder of 2014.

I’ll post about that either later on this week or early next week.

Stay tuned!

2014 Goals: July Progress is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

So much happened in June. The wedding keeps inching closer and closer, which is both exciting and stressful. As a reminder, below are the goals that I made for 2014 at the beginning of the year.

I made some serious strides toward achieving all of these things in June.

$20,000 Online Income

Overall in June, unless an expected payment clears between now and tomorrow (unlikely), I have made $1978.42 in online income.

This is generated through various streams, including:

– My new, non-blog related endeavor
– The services that I offer (staff writing, ghost writing, blog commenting, carnival submissions and blog consulting)
– Affiliate income
– Other blogging income

This is before all deductions (Paypal fees, services, conversion rates, cost of supplies).

Offline, I made $796.36 in passive income.

My total extra income is $2,774.78 for the month of June.

I’m waiting on a payment of about $425, which should have cleared in June but will more likely clear at the very beginning of July so it will be included in my July income review.

If I made $1978.42 in extra online income every month in 2014, I would surpass my $20,000 goal by $3,741.04.

It was a good month!

Lose 15 Pounds

In late May, I had my first wedding gown fitting. I had ordered a size smaller than I was when I found “the” dress, despite many warnings from bridal consultant.

When I tried my gown on, I was thrilled that it fit. That meant that I had lost enough weight that I was down a dress size.

I had my final fitting about a week ago, and the gown was getting a bit too loose around my hips. I don’t feel that I am done losing, but I will have to hold off on losing any more weight for at least the next few weeks until the wedding is over.

I don’t feel that different, but so many people have been commenting on my weight loss. I would guess that I am down at least 10-12 pounds since the beginning of the year.

1 hr/day Unplugged

Because of all of the wedding planning, and the general outdoorsy-ness that comes with the summertime, I’ve spent far more than one hour per day unplugged. In fact, I’ve been neglecting the stuff that I really need to be doing online to keep the income coming in. I can’t do everything that I want to do, not with planning a wedding. I’ll be able to pick it up again in August, so this will be more of a conscious effort then.

Get a Promotion

It became apparent over the course of May and June that I wasn’t going to be successful in getting a promotion within my preferred timeframe with the company I was working for, so I promoted myself.

I accepted a job offer with a different company. 

I’ll be making around $20,000 more per year (if I am there for a year; the position is temporary for right now) overall, and my base salary will be an increase of over $8 per hour.

That’s how I fared in June! Bring on the later half of the year

2014 Goals: June Progress is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

It’s true what they say about wedding planning being back loaded. The wedding is in 5 weeks, and I’ve been scrambling to get so much stuff done. Coming into summer, it’s also the perfect time for camping, barbeques, and trips, so I have been pulled away from laser focusing on the wedding over the past few weeks.

It’s definitely been busy and, as a result, we really haven’t had our monthly review until now.

Here’s how I’ve done:

Lose 15 Pounds

I’m still kicking myself for not recording my weight at the beginning of the year when I made this goal, because the time has flown and I have no recollection of what my starting weight was.

I know that at one point this year (I think it was in February) I saw a weight on the scale about 8 pounds heavier than I weigh in now, so that’s good news for my progress, but I can also say this:

Since April, I have lost 3 pounds. 

I went for a dress fitting last week, and while the dress fits (and looks amazing), I think it would be more comfortable if I lose a few more pounds so I am working hard on that.

$20,000 Online Income

In April, I made $1678.33 online. In May, I made $1533.82. This is only online income and doesn’t include income from investments or offline income.  This has helped a lot with wedding costs!

I found a cool new way to make money that I absolutely love doing and isn’t even remotely related to blogging, so I have been having a lot of fun building that up.

June is already an amazing month for online income and I have no doubt that it will continue throughout the month and hopefully the rest of the summer.

1 hr/day Unplugged

This was an easy goal to reach again in May. With the sunshine and my need to de-stress after all of the wedding planning and freaking out, I haven’t even had to think about this in order to reach it.

Our garden has been going nuts lately, so lots of this time has been spent tending to it, which is a surprisingly fun activity.

Get a Promotion

This goal is on hold while I figure out whether I want to make a career move. I have had a couple of promising leads, but they are risky decisions and I’m conflicted and need to work them out.

One would give me a raise of about $7,000/year after tax, but it’s a temporary position which may lead to a regular opportunity. It is with a company I’ve previously worked for so I know I love working with them, and the role sounds really exciting, but I keep getting caught on the temporary piece.

Everyone keeps reminding me that I’m young and if ever I am going to take risks with my career, now is the time, which I agree with. Even if, worst case scenario, the term ends and I haven’t found another position, I have built up a steady income online. I’m sure I could sustain myself while searching (or, maybe just travel for awhile and continue building up my online businesses).

Change is scary.

That’s how I did on my goals for May.

2014 Goals: May Progress is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.